


Two is Better Than One

by Singer_of_Water



Category: Four Brothers (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-01-06 08:23:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12207444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Singer_of_Water/pseuds/Singer_of_Water
Summary: Six year old Alex Grayson moves to Detroit to live with her uncle after her parents die. There she meets the Mercers. As she gets to know the four brothers, she and Jack become closer as the years go by.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

They drove through Detroit and through a few neighborhoods. The occasional gang looking group would stare at the car as it drove by. The six year old girl in the back seat would smile and wave at the groups and look out the window in awe at the new places she saw. The woman driving looked at the girl through the rearview mirror with solemn eyes. She broke the silence turning on the radio.

'Two days ago an explosion occurred at a factory in Florida killing seven people. Five were maintenance workers Paul Cramer, Matthew Derice, Daniela Smith, Jessie Madison, and Randy O'Connor. The other two were inspectors Allison and Patrick Grayson.'

"They're talking about Mommy and Daddy!" the little girl exclaimed, a big smile on her face.

The woman quickly changed the station. They continued to drive in silence with a Beetles song playing on the radio. The car pulled up to a two story brick house with black tiles for the roof and with brick steps leading to the front door. The house was on a lone street with other small two story houses lining up and down.

"Here we are," the woman said. "Why don't we get your things from the trunk and go see if your uncle's home."

"Okay," the little girl said following the woman to the trunk. "Are Mommy and Daddy coming soon," she asked looking at the adult in front of her with curious, innocent green eyes.

"Here you go," the woman said, avoiding the answer by handing the girl a pink backpack with a stuffed rabbit sticking out the top. "I'll take your other bags up with us." The two walked up the porch and the woman knocked three times. A man with unkempt black hair, groggy eyes with dark brown irises that looked almost black, stubble on his chin, wearing a white shirt, jeans, and a beer can in his hand opened the door.

"You the social worker who called? " the man said in a gruff voice, taking a swig from his beer.

"Yes, I'm Ms. Whendings and you must be Mr. Grayson," she answered in a cheerful tone.

"Is she the girl?" he asked, nodding his head to the girl with a curious expression on her face as she looked up at the man.

"Yes, this is your niece, Alexandra Grayson-"

"I'm Alex!" the little girl said, smiling.

"Yes, Alex Grayson, you brother's daughter. Again I am so sorry for your loss," the woman continued with a sympathetic expression. She turned to Alex. "I have to go now, it was nice meeting you Alex." Heading to her car she said, "I wish you two the best."

Alex waved. "Bye!" She looked up at her uncle as the social worker drove away. "Are you Uncle Marvin?" she asked.

"Yeah," her uncle grunted. "Okay get in," he said, pushing her and her bags through the door. Alex looked around the room she was pushed into. It looked to be the living room, but it was littered with trash. There were two pizza boxes on the coffee table, some Chinese takeout boxes here and there, wrappers and bags from all sorts of foods, and beer cans and bottles everywhere. "Your room's upstairs, second door on the left. I'm goin-"

"Where're Mommy and Daddy?" Alex asked, sad eyes staring up at her uncle.

"Uh…" Uncle Marvin looked down at his niece, unsure of what to do. He settled on patting her head. The affectionate gesture ended quickly and he headed for the door. "I'm going," he said standing outside on the porch, his hand on the door handle. "You can unpack in your room then you can clean up the mess. Trash bags are under the sink." He slammed the door leaving Alex standing with her bags in the living room. She looked at the mess behind her.

"Mommy and Daddy told me to listen to grownups," she said to herself as she walked up stairs, taking one bag up at a time. When all the bags were up the stairs she pushed them to the bedroom. Inside was a plain white walled room with a window overlooking the street and a bed with a night stand next to it. "Where do I put my clothes?" Alex spotted a door on one wall. She opened it to find an empty closet with hangers dangling on the rack. "Oh good," she said cheerfully and started unpacking.

After all the bags were emptied Alex made her way downstairs and got a trash bag from under the kitchen sink. She stared at the mess once more trying to decide where to start. She was about to pick a beer can when a bark came from behind her. Alex whipped around to find a black Labrador in front of her, growling.

"A puppy!" she exclaimed, running over to the dog, whose tail began to wag as she scratched its ear. He rolled over as Alex rubbed his belly, his tongue sticking out of his mouth. "What's your name?" Alex found a name tag dangling from the red collar around his neck. "Jennifer? What a pretty name." Jennifer barked, wagging her tail at the sound of her name. "Good girl, Jennifer. Want to help me clean?" Jennifer jumped up and licked Alex's face as she giggled.

ooOOoo

"Hey Asshole Grayson has a visitor," Bobby Mercer said looking out the window in the kitchen.

"Bobby watch you language," Evelyn Mercer scolded her oldest son as she and the newest Mercer brother, Jack, made cookies. "Very good, Jackie," she praised the six year old as he cut out cookie dough with a cookie cutter.

"Sorry, Ma," Bobby apologized.

The third oldest son, Angel walked over to his brother and looked out the window. Sure enough there was a woman getting out of a silver car with a little girl with dirty blonde hair that reached her shoulders. "There's a woman and a girl," he stated. "Think it's family?"

"Marvin Grayson? Have Family?" Bobby laughed. "That's funny."

"Everyone has family, Bobby," Jerry said from his seat in the living room.

Evelyn rolled out more dough before walking over to the window herself, leaving Jack to cut the rest of the dough. "Oh that must be his niece."

"He has a niece?" Angel queried a small smirk on his face.

"It was on the news. His brother and sister-in-law were factory inspectors, two days ago there was an explosion that killed them," Evelyn explained, a sympathetic look on her face. The four brothers looked at her as she continued to look out the window. "Poor thing, she probably doesn't realize they're gone," she said, noticing the girl smiling as she looked up and down the street.

"She looks like Jack's age," Bobby said. Jack looked up in terror at the sound of someone saying his name. Evelyn turned around and smiled at Jack.

"How about after dinner we introduce ourselves," she said. "What do you think Jackie?"

Jack nodded his head as he stared at his new mother. Bobby gave his little brother a reassuring smile. "Maybe we can give her some of your awesome cookies. Right Angel, Jer?"

"Sounds like a plan," Angel said smiling.

"Do you want to pick out the ones to give her, Jack?" Jerry asked as he entered the kitchen to get the dishes and silverware to set the dinner table.

ooOOoo

"Ready, Jack?" Bobby asked, extending his hand to the little boy who stood on the steps of the porch. His brothers and mother were in front of him as he stood there staring at them. Jack hesitated for a moment before taking Bobby's hand. They were about to start walking across the street when they saw the little girl dragging trash bags to the end of the curb with a black dog walking next to her.

"She tamed Cujo," Angel laughed.

"I'm taking a guess Marvin left," Jerry said as they made their way over to her. The dog barked announcing to the girl their arrival. Jack cowered behind his mother's leg as the dog continued barking. The little girl looked up at all of them before saying cheerfully, "Hello!"

"Hello, we're your neighbors, we live across the street," Evelyn said. "I'm Evelyn Mercer, this is Bobby, Jeremiah, Angel, and Jack," she said, motioning to each boy, each with their own individual greeting, Jack still hiding behind her leg.

"I'm Alex," Alex said cheerfully with a wave.

Evelyn nudged Jack. "Why don't you give her the cookies?

The youngest Mercer brother looked up at his mom as she said this. Jack gradually peeked around her leg. Slowly, he handed Alex the plate of cookies. She took the plate with a smile. "Thanks!" she said excitedly. The dog barked causing Jack to retreat behind his mom.

"Cujo's gonna attack," Bobby said, holding his hands up with a chuckle.

"Who's Cujo?" Alex asked, looking up at the tall man in front of her.

"The dog."

"Jennifer?"

"Cujo's a girl?" Angel said. "Whoa, didn't see that coming."

Jennifer walked up to the group and Jack hid further behind Evelyn. Jennifer cocker her head to the side, then, getting bored, walked back over to the porch and curled up on one of the steps.

"Where's your uncle, Alex?" Evelyn asked.

Alex shrugged. "He told me where my room was, told me to the house then left."

"He had you clean his mess?" she asked astounded. "I'll have to talk to him when he gets back," Evelyn said, more to herself than anyone else.

"Anyways," Jerry said, chuckling. "Maybe you and Jack can play together. He's six, how old are you?" he asked as Jack hid even further behind his mom's leg.

"I'm six too. Can I really come over and play?" Alex asked her face lighting up at the idea.

"Sure, why not?" Bobby said with a smile.

Alex's smile grew bigger as she looked from one brother to the next. Evelyn smiled at the young girl. She patted Jack's head.

"We better get going, it's getting late. I hope we see you soon, Alex," Evelyn said, taking Jack's hand and leading him across the street.

"See ya, Cinderella," Bobby called out to her as he, Angel, and Jerry followed their mother.

"Bye!" Alex shouted, watching the family go back to their house. She smiled and waved again, seeing Jack look back for a fleeting second.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Alex sat on the front porch steps of her uncle's house holding her stuffed rabbit in her hands, Jennifer lying next to her with her head on her paws, as she stared at the street in front of her. Every now and then a car would drive by and a smile would spread across her face, only to diminish as the cars kept on driving away. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, an hour, maybe two, but she didn't want to go back in yet in case they came. Earlier that day she had gone across the street to go see the Mercers, wanting to play with Jack and possibly his brothers. But when she had rang the doorbell no one answered so she went back across the street to her house and sat on the front porch steps awaiting their return home. She stared at the house across the street, with her head in her hands propped up by her knees, as if it was her job.

She thought about going back inside when a car pulled up into the Mercer's drive way. Immediately she leapt from the steps and ran across the street just as the family was getting out of the car with a few groceries in their hands.

"Hello, Evelyn," Alex greeted the woman. Bobby and Jerry laughed when they saw Angel jump when Alex popped out of nowhere.

Evelyn smiled at the little girl. "Hello, Alex. How are you?" she asked, pulling out some more groceries from the back seat.

"I'm fine, how are you? Would you like some help?" Alex asked, seeing Bobby open up the trunk of the car revealing even more groceries.

"Why thank you, Alex. I'd love your help," Evelyn said, her smile growing.

Alex smiled and walked over to Bobby, almost skipping to him. She smiled up at the oldest Mercer brother. "Hello."

Bobby smiled down at her. "Hey, Cinderella, what's up? Come to lend a hand?" Alex nodded her head in reply. "Alright," he said, gesturing to the bags of groceries. "Pick a bag, any bag."

Alex grabbed one of the first bags she saw and followed Jerry and Angel into the kitchen where she found Jack helping Evelyn putting away the food items in the fridge and pantry.

"Jack!" Alex said happily.

Jack turned around, a frightened look on his face when he heard his name. He saw Alex skip over to him with a large smile on her face. He backed away quickly hiding behind Evelyn's legs.

Alex gave him an upset look as Bobby walked in with the rest of the groceries. He looked down at Alex then looked over at Jack.

"Hey, Jack, why don't you, me, and Alex go play outside?" he suggested, making Alex's face light up.

"You'll play with us? Really?" she said excitedly.

"Sure, why not?" Bobby said, smiling down at her as he placed the bags onto the kitchen counter. "We can even get Jerry and Angel to join."

"Yay!" Alex said jumping up and down. She turned to Jack who was being ushered by Evelyn to move out from behind her legs. "Want to play with us, Jack?"

Jack looked from the girl in front of him, to Bobby, then up to his mother, who smiled at him.

"Go have fun sweetie," his mother said.

Jack slowly walked over to Alex, whose smile grew bigger.

"Let's go outside!" Alex said, holding out her hand for him to take. She frowned when he didn't, but shrugged it off as he followed her outside. "Are you coming, Bobby?" she asked the seventeen year old.

"I'll meet you two out there. You get Jerry and Angel to play though, they're outside already," he replied.

"Okie dokie!"

Evelyn smiled as her new son followed the little girl out the door. She turned to her oldest son. "Bobby, will you… What's wrong?" she asked seeing the scowl on his face.

"I don't get how anyone could have treated such a small kid so badly. He hasn't even said one word since he's joined the family, it's been almost a month," Bobby said, his voice getting louder and louder.

"I know, Bobby, but at least he's now with us where he'll be safe and loved," was the reply he got from his mother.

"I think Alex might break him out of his shell," he said with a smile.

"I think so too," she said. "Why don't you go outside and play with them, I'll finish putting the groceries away."

"Alright," Bobby said as he went out the door.

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

Bobby sat in the living room watching TV, flipping through channels while the two six year olds played outside. Angel had gone to see some friends while Evelyn and Jerry went back to the store to get some food they forgot to buy earlier. He finally settled on something to watching, having found a hockey game, when Jack came running into the room with a terrified look on his face.

Bobby sat up in his seat. "What's wrong, Jackie?" A thought came to mind as he asked that. "Where's Alex?" Bobby practically jumped out of his seat as he ran out the door, Jack following as fast as his little legs could carry him, and found Alex sitting on the driveway crying while holding her knee. "What happened?"

"I-I tr-tripped and fell," she sobbed.

Bobby moved her hands from her knee and saw that it had been scuffed up and bleeding. "Oh boy, that looks bad. Come on," he said, picking her up and carrying her into the kitchen, setting her down on the counter. He started to look around for a towel to wet to clean her knee when he saw Jack shuffle into the room, looking down at his feet. "Hey, it's alright, Jackie. Alex is going to be okay. You did the right thing and got me," he said with a soft smile. Jack looked up at him with sad, scared eyes and nodded his head slightly in understanding.

After cleaning the blood off, disinfecting the wound, and bandaging Alex's knee Bobby lifted her off the counter with her still sniffling. "Hey, don't be sad. You're all better. You're strong for your age," he said with a smile.

"R-really?" Alex asked, rubbing her eyes of excess tears.

"Yeah," Bobby said with a chuckle. "How about some ice cream?"

"Ice cream?" Alex said, her eyes lighting up just a tad at the thought of the sweet, cold treat.

"Why not? I think we could all use some," Bobby said. He turned to Jack who was sitting in the dining and had been observing Bobby take care of Alex. "How about you, Jackie? Do you want some ice cream?"

Jack looked up at his eldest brother with curious eyes. He nodded his head slightly, uncertain if 'yes' was the correct answer.

Bobby smiled. "Alright, you two just sit where Jack is already, and I'll fix us up some bowls of ice cream."

After five minutes Bobby brought three bowls of vanilla ice cream out to the dining room where the two six year olds sat quietly awaiting their treat. The three ate in silence, the only sound being the spoons clanging against the bowls. Bobby would look from Alex to Jack smiling at how the little girl would smile with each bite and Jack would try to hide his smile as he ate his. There had to be some way to get his younger brother to speak.

"Thank you for the ice cream, Bobby," Alex said cheerfully just as Evelyn came in with Jerry, along with Angel having just picked him up on their way home, groceries in hand yet again.

"Bobby, did you open up the carton of ice cream I just bought?" Evelyn scolded her son as she walked into the dining room having heard what Alex just said along with seeing the now empty bowls of ice cream.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Bobby said, sliding his bowl behind his back with a smile.

Evelyn rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Honestly Bobby," she said as Jerry and Angel laughed.

Alex got up and walked into the kitchen, bowl in hand. "Where do you want me to put this?" she asked Angel.

Angel looked down with a chuckle. "I'll take it for you," he answered.

"Thank you!"

Angel took the bowl, as he did he noticed the band aid on her knee. "What happened to your knee, Alex?"

The question caught Evelyn's attention and she immediately came over to the little girl. She narrowed her eyes at the band aid with some blood stained on the cushioned part. "Bobby! What happened?"

"Calm down, Ma. Alex just scraped her knee is all," Bobby replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"How did it happen?"

"She fell."

She pursed her lips when she heard cheering coming from the living room. She walked into the little room to find that the hockey game Bobby had been watching earlier was never turned off. "Were you watching a hockey game instead of watching Alex and Jack?" she said nearly shouting.

Bobby sighed. "Yes. Sorry, Ma," Bobby said. "I didn't think anything would happen."

"Well obviously you thought wrong," she said with a stern voice. She looked at the clock on the oven. "Alex, do you want to stay for dinner?"

"Thank you, but I wanted to have dinner with Uncle Marvin," she said with a happy grin. "He said we were going to have pizza tonight!"

Bobby, Jerry, and Angel laughed as Evelyn smiled. "Alright sweetie, it was nice seeing you today. Will one of you boys walk Alex across the street?"

"I'll do it, Ma," Bobby said, hoping it would somewhat redeem his mistake of not watching the kids. "Want to come with, Jack?"

Jack looked at Bobby then at Alex. He slowly got up from his seat in the dining room, which he had yet to leave, and walked over to Bobby.

The three walked across the street, the street lamps starting to flicker on down the street as the sky got darker by the minute. Alex walked up the steps of her porch and turned around to face the two brothers before opening the door.

"Thank you for playing with me today! I had fun!" Alex said, waving energetically.

"No problem. I had fun too," Bobby said with a chuckle.

Jack waved at Alex with a smile clear on his face as the little girl walked into her house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait I've been busy with color guard and I need to finish my school work since I'm starting school tomorrow. Lesson for life don't procrastinate ugh. Also I have Alex's fan cast, Hayden Panettiere, if you haven't guessed from the story's picture. She actually is how I pictured Alex to look like. Anyways here's chapter two.
> 
> Update 9/27/17
> 
> As stated in the author's notes at the end of the first chapter I am reopening this story after five years, but I won't be editing chapters 1-3. Chapter 4 and beyond will be new ones. I hope you enjoy and I'd love to hear your thoughts so leave a review!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

A month had passed since Alex moved in with her uncle. Almost every day she would go visit the Mercers wanting to play with Jack. And no matter how many times she spent time at the house Jack never said a word. Once she had asked Evelyn if he had lost his voice like Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Evelyn laughed and told her that he just wasn't ready to say anything. Bobby had looked slightly mad, in Alex's opinion, when she had said it.

Alex skipped across the street, her trade mark stuffed rabbit in her hand, to the house she knew so well. She rang the doorbell when she reached the front porch and was greeted by Jerry.

"Hey, Alex. Did you come to see Jack?" he asked.

Alex nodded with a smile and walked in when Jerry stepped out of the way for her. She could hear Bobby shouting from the living room so she walked over to where it was. She found Bobby sitting in one of the arm chairs, a coca cola in hand, yelling at the TV. She saw that it was a hockey game on, which she learned was the favorite sport in the Mercer house hold, especially Bobby's. Jerry walked past her and sat on the couch next to Jack, who was hiding behind one of the pillows on the couch.

Jerry shook his head as Bobby yelled again and Jack cowered further behind the pillow. "Come on man, stop yelling at the TV. The players can't hear ya. Plus, you're scaring Jack over here," he said, motioning to their little brother.

"Sorry, Jackie," Bobby said, giving his youngest brother a sympathetic look. The oldest Mercer brother looked up and spotted Alex standing in the doorway. "Hey, Cinderella!" he called out, making Jack look up from his pillow and behind his shoulder at the little girl. "What's up?"

Alex shrugged in response when hurried footsteps could be heard coming from upstairs. Alex whipped around to face the staircase to find a young girl with caramel skin, who looked to be about Angel or Jerry's age, running down the stairs. Alex heard Bobby groan when the girl reached the last step.

"Oh my god, I finally get to meet you!" the girl said, rushing over to Alex.

Next thing she knew the girl had gathered her in her arms and hugged her causing her to drop her rabbit. Alex was slightly frightened at the fact that a stranger was hugging her.

The girl let her go and looked her up and down. "You're just as cute as I pictured you," she said gleefully. Alex noted that she had a strange accent to her voice. "Angel has told me so much about you! Finally, there's another girl to have around the house, besides Evelyn of course. I'm Sofi," she said and hugged the little six year old again in a bear hug.

"Stop trying to suffocate her, La Vida Loca," Bobby shouted from the living room, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Can it, Bobby. I just wanted to meet the little girl from across the street," Sofi replied harshly.

ooOOoo

Alex and Jack were sitting quietly in the living room watching TV, Alex playing with her stuffed rabbit while Jack stared, mesmerized, by the cartoon that was on. The sound of a hammer outside brought their attention to the one window in the room. The two got up, climbed onto the couch, and peered through the curtain to investigate where the noise was coming from.

Outside the window they saw Jerry surrounded by many different sized and shaped pieces of wood, two of which he was hammering together.

Alex climbed off of the couch and made her way out the door, Jack staring at her confused for a few seconds before following after. The two stood on the porch steps, watching Jerry as he carried the pieces of wood he had just nailed together to the big tree that was on the side of the house. Alex tilted her head in curiosity.

"What are you doing to the tree?" she said as Jerry hammered the pieces of wood to the tree, which now had other pieces of wood trailing up the trunk looking like a ladder.

Jerry turned around and smiled at his little brother and the little girl with a smile that looked like a smile a little kid would have when meeting Santa Claus. "I'm finally building a tree house; something I've been wanting to do for so long," he replied.

"A tree house?" Alex exclaimed in amazement. "Really?" she asked, hopping off the porch steps and running over to Jerry, her stuffed rabbit bobbing up and down with each swing of her arm.

"Yeah," Jerry said, looking at what he had built so far. "Mr. Sermonta had a bunch of wood he didn't want and said I could have it and now I get to build a tree house."

"Will we get to play in it?" Alex asked as Jack walked up between her and Jerry.

"Sure ya can," Jerry said with a smile. "Once I'm done anyone can hang out in it."

Alex jumped up and down at the thought of getting to play in a tree house. She'd always seen some houses with tree houses down in Florida, but none of her friends had one. She was excited beyond belief at the fact that she will get to go up in an actual tree house for the first time.

"Will it be done soon?" she questioned.

"Probably not soon, but hopefully before dinner," Jerry explained. "You and Jack can go back inside if you want and I'll come get ya'll when it's finished."

Okay," Alex said and followed Jack back inside the house.

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

Ever since Alex Grayson moved in with her uncle across the street she had been visiting the Mercers frequently, wanting to play with Jack. Jack had been wary since the first day she had come over to play, especially when Alex fell down on the drive way. He had been terrified! He didn't want to be blamed for her getting hurt. He was worried that he would get hit believing someone would think it was his fault. He knew that Bobby had been the only family member in the house at the time and out of all his brothers he scared Jack the most. He didn't want his oldest brother to hit him; however, he needed to get Alex help. So he hid his fears as best he could and ran inside the house.

Having gotten Bobby's attention he flinched when the seventeen year old ran towards him, fearing the worst. But Bobby kept running past him making Jack believe he would get hit later once his brother saw Alex. At the end of the incident some fears had been lifted from the six year old knowing that he wasn't going to get hit and that Alex was alright.

As Jack and Alex played together, hesitantly in his case, Jack noticed that Alex was always smiling and treating him kindly, not that Evelyn wasn't nice to him or his brothers (even if they scared him). One instance was when Alex and him were given the last two cookies Evelyn had made and Jack had dropped his. Jack had stared at the baked treat on the kitchen floor remembering Evelyn didn't like it when Angel ate something that had fallen to the floor. Alex turned to him and held out her uneaten cookie to the blonde boy. Jack wanted to say that she didn't have to, but kept silent not wanting to say something wrong and took the cookie.

Now, the two blonde children were sitting in the living room after having found the source of the hammering noise. It had been maybe two and a half hours and Jerry hammering and sawing wood was still echoing into the room and now the six year olds were watching a movie on TV. Then the noises from outside stopped and Jerry walked into the house.

"God I'm tired," he said as he walked up the stairs, practically dragging himself.

Alex jumped up. "Is the tree house ready?" she asked excitedly.

"Sorry, Alex, no. But, there's not much left to do so I'll finish tomorrow," Jerry answered and went to his room.

Alex pouted and sat back down next to Jack and began to fiddle with her rabbit again. At least ten minutes later Alex caught a whiff of something fowl. She turned towards the boy next to her.

"Jack…," she said slowly. "Do…do you smell something burning?"

Jack began to sniff the air and his eyes slowly grew wide. The two children looked around frantically, scared that something inside the house had caught fire. Alex had turned towards the window in the room and saw a small glow coming from outside that didn't mix with the daylight. She jumped up and ran outside with Jack and to their horror they saw the tree house Jerry had been working on all day on fire. In front of the horrid scene was Bobby.

"Bobby!" Alex cried running over to the teen and hid behind his leg.

Bobby looked down surprised to see the two kids outside. "Oh crap," he mumbled.

"What the hell happened to my tree house?"

The three in front of the burning tree turned to see Jerry running off of the porch and towards his recent creation.

Bobby began to laugh. "Man, you need to see your face! Priceless! My tree house!" he said mocking Jerry's screaming.

Jerry whipped around and glared at his older brother with a stare that could kill. "You did this?" he shouted pointing a finger towards the burning tree house.

"Yeah. I just saw a random tree house in our yard and saw a window of opportunity," Bobby exclaimed with a grin on his face as Alex and Jack looked up at the two teens confused.

It wasn't even five minutes until the fire department showed up at the house. Bobby just laughed as Jerry cried watching as the fire fighters doused the flames. When Evelyn had heard the news Bobby had been grounded for a month and Jerry was still glaring at him throughout the rest of the day not saying a single word to him. Later that evening Evelyn and Jack walked Alex back to her house for dinner after she had said she wanted to have dinner with her uncle.

"Have a nice night, sweetheart," Evelyn said as Alex walked up her porch.

Alex waved at the two. "Bye Evelyn! Bye Jack! Thanks for playing with me!" she said to the little boy.

Jack smiled and waved at Alex. "Bye Alex. I had fun," he said quietly causing a smile to erupt on her small face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, sorry for the late update. I've been busy with school and color guard. Senior year is tough and I am working to bring my grades up. I've been working on chapter three for a while now and I'm piecing together different bits of the chapter that I've been writing during my free time and when I'm bored during classes. So I hope you like it, enjoy.
> 
> Update 9/27/17
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter. This is the last chapter from 2012 and from here on out will be 2017 and whenever I update in the future. I hope you like the story so far and I'd love to hear your thought so leave a review!
> 
> I promise to update sooner this time. I am now on my Thanksgiving break so I'll hopefully get to work more on my writing. I have like three stories that need to be worked on. I'm also trying to convince my mom for a laptop of my own for Christmas since my twin sister and I share her laptop for school (the only working computer in my house) and my mom doesn't like the fact that I'm using it to type up my stories. So let's hope I get my Christmas wish this year. Leave a review!

**Author's Note:**

> I had posted this story originally on ff.net and had posted it back in 2012. So after five years I have decided to reopen this story. It has always been one of my favorite stories I worked on, but I was hit by major writer's block back in 2012 when I had first started the story and posted chapter 3. I won't be editing chapters 1-3, I am sorry, but I just don't have the time to edit them while working on new chapters. So from chapters 1-3 they will be my writing from 2012 and chapters 4 and any potential future chapters will be my writing from 2017. I hope you can stick through the first few chapters and enjoy the story in general. Let me know what you think and leave a review. I appreciate all feedback, they help me improve and see what my readers like. Thanks!


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